Aim: How does Homer’s invocation establish tone for the beginning of The Odyssey?
Do Now: How do you become inspired? Where does it originate? (Class discussion)
For the Do Now, our class discussed how listening to music and looking at words and images that we look at inspire. Walking outside and reading books or looking at media are other things that our class is inspired by. We are generally inspired during moments when we are calm or when our minds wander.
The Nine Muses:
Muses serve as inspiration for poets and other artists
In Greek mythology, there were nine goddesses of arts, literature and science that served as muses
One of nine Muses inspired different forms of prose, poetry, drama, rhetoric, or general writing.
Homer’s invocation pays homage (special honor and respect) to these goddesses and to Ancient Greek culture in general
expresses the purpose of the narrative
Incorporates traditions familiar to his specific audience.
Non-Traditional Traditional
The lesson started with watching a video describing 9 goddesses, who were muses, in Greek mythology. This video described the purposes of the goddesses, and their involvement in the everyday lives of citizens of Greece during the time. This gave me a good background understanding of the 9 goddesses and what parts of life they overlooked. However, they more so demonstrated cultural and literature impact, such as with festivals and poetry. Also, this was to prepare us for the beginning of our reading of The Odyssey.
The Invocation of the Muse
What exactly is an invocation?
Quickly: Use your device to look up the term “invoke”
Homer’s invocation pays homage (special honor and respect) to the goddesses and to Ancient Greek culture in general.
expresses the purpose of the narrative
Incorporates traditions familiar to his specific audience.
We next discussed what an invocation is within the context of The Odyssey. Although the word has many meanings, it actually meant an appeal for aid, made to a muse or deity in this case. Homer, the author of The Odyssey, demonstrated superiority and incorporated his homage towards the goddesses. Again, this gave more information about significant figures in the story, which we were learning about, to understand what these terms meant. The invocation from the narrator addresses the story surrounding Odysseus and his troops’ journey home proceeding the Trojan War.
Google Classroom
Open Homer’s Invocation (lines 1-17)
After, we spirit read an excerpt, Homer’s Invocation, which is from The Odyssey. As a class, we interpreted the meaning of the excerpt and what had occurred, since the diction was confusing at some points. The beginning mentioned muses and went off descriptions of them which we had watched a video about earlier.
GROUP DISCUSSION
What is your opinion of Odysseus so far after hearing Homer's invocation to the muses and learning about the Trojan War?
How does Homer maintain the audience’s interest in the story, knowing that the audience is aware of the outcome from the very beginning?
What does the invocation of the Muse in the opening lines clarify about Odysseus’ culpability (responsibility for a fault or wrong; blame) during his voyage home?
WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Once we finished reading Homer’s Invocation, we went into breakout rooms and discussed these three questions. For the first question, we stated that Odysseus was persevering and strong as the protagonist of the story. It took him and his shipmates a while to get home, but they did not forfeit their journey. For the second question, we stated that Homer projected an energetic attitude towards his audience, although they are already aware of the outcome from the beginning. For the third question, we described how the looting of the stronghold of Troy clarified Odysseus’s culpability. The juxtaposition of the high description of the man came in contrast to a crime he committed.
Reflection:
I learned about the roles of the nine muses, as well as what an invocation is in The Odyssey. Muses inspired different parts of literature, including poetry as mentioned before. An invocation is basically a call of help to a muse or deity. We learned about muses and invocations because they appeared in the beginning of the excerpt from The Odyssey, that we read today. This gave us context to the story, helping us understand what was going on. We read about how the narrator makes an invocation to a muse, requesting it to tell a story about Odysseus’s journey back home. This journey was faced with conflict in hunger and exhaustion. This lesson was very informative. I can use what I learned to learn more about further in-depth reading of The Odyssey and Greek mythology in general.
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